Sugar – Season 1 Episode 4 Recap & Review

Starry-Eyed

Sugar Episode 4 begins with Sugar visiting Dr. Vickers. His physical health is fine but Vickers, like Ruby, worries about his mental health. Davy Siegel and Kenny make a visit to John’s mother. Meanwhile, Bernie comes home and goes through photographs of Rachel.

Sugar asks Ruby about Stallings. Ruby makes it out like Stallings isn’t linked to the case at all. She doesn’t want Sugar looking into him. Elsewhere, Sugar’s mother wishes the boys goodbye and then calls Sugar. Turns out, it was all a set-up by Sugar himself and he was well aware of Davy’s antics.

Sugar comes back to his hotel room and finds Melanie waiting for him. She says she remembered something. Olivia had cancelled plans with Melanie and then met another young girl. Melanie saw them around Silver Lake and the other girl looked quite distraught. Sugar and Melanie head out looking for this other girl.

A staff girl at a shop recognises Olivia as the friend of a girl named Taylor. The pair then meet Taylor. She’s a struggling actor and a few years ago was up for a role in Bernie’s film. She mentioned it to Davy who started texting her. When she didn’t respond, he sent her a tape of them sleeping together, from years ago.

He threatened to publish the video and even the cops refused to help Taylor. That’s when she reached out to Olivia on Instagram and told her all of that. When they leave, Melanie seems disturbed by what they’ve learnt. Sugar offers some comfort.

On the way back home, Davy calls his mother, Margit, and tells her everything he’s learnt from ‘Sugar’s mother’. She tells him to not say anything to his father yet. Sugar wants to meet with Jonathan but his secretary gives Sugar a movie ticket instead. Sugar arrives at the theatre and Jonathan agrees to speak to Sugar after the screening.

Sugar meets Margit and then Bernie. Sugar asks Bernie about Davy but he gets distracted by Wendy, Bernie’s wife. Sugar then sees Melanie enter and go somewhere private with Bernie. Sugar goes to a room backstage and watches the two talk in the security camera footage.

The movie — Winds of Change featuring a famous actress named Lorraine Everly, produced by Jonathan — ends. While Jonathan is talking on stage, a news report breaks out of Davy’s sexual harassment. Davy learns of it as well. He soon gets a call from Stallings, who threatens him to make sure he doesn’t mention his name to the cops or lawyers. Jonathan leaves the stage but suddenly collapses and requires emergency aid.

Stallings hands out duties to his men, to look into Sugar and Melanie. After he leaves, the only person left at his house is a woman with whom he leaves a set of keys.

Sugar reveals that Jonathan had a heart attack but survived. He’s back in his hotel room and looking at the compromising photos of Rachel. She’s wearing the same dress from the movie that was worn by Lorraine, but thirty years later.

Meanwhile, the woman in Stallings’ house rummages through a cupboard. She finds a necklace with a cross on it and wears it. Sugar watches an Instagram video of Olivia where she says she thinks someone is watching her. She’s wearing the same necklace the other woman just wore at the end of Sugar Episode 4.

The Episode Review

Episode 4 of Sugar is marginally better than its predecessors and this is largely due to the focus on Olivia’s disappearance and no vague hints about Sugar’s own past. Several developments occur during this episode — it is satisfying to watch Sugar get one over Davy Siegel, the character of Taylor brings a strong connection between Olivia and Davy, and Melanie continues to hide a few things from Sugar.

The mix of these elements along with two reveals at the end, of the dress and Olivia’s necklace, make this episode quite an interesting one. Another reason why this episode felt like a better watch was that Sugar’s internal dialogue was kept to a minimum. It goes to show that the core mystery of the show is quite thrilling but involving Sugar’s own trauma and past is what dilutes the story’s attraction. A positive change, although, I’m sure this won’t last.